Popular Heartbreak Books

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS 2019 (love & heartbreak)

I remember the first time my boyfriend told me he loved me. It was as close to a perfect moment that I had ever gotten.
Jojo Moyes

9 Books That Have Gotten Me Through Heartbreak, Love, & Everything In Between

Skip navigation! Breakups are hard. They're also hard to live through. Suddenly, there's a vacuum where a person had been. And somehow, we must construct a new life around this startling fact. That's what breakups are all about, really: Constructing a new normal, learning who you are when you're on your own. Breakups are a paradox, in that they feel intensely personal and yet are a near universal experience.

Coping with heartbreak and the end of a relationship can make you feel completely thrown off-course. You're fed up of your puffy eyes, and that dull ache in the pit of your stomach that just won't go away. But one thing that really does help at a time as rotten as this is losing yourself in a story. As well as escapism, a good book can also help you process what you're going through. A recent poll by The Reading Agency found that a quarter of people said their favourite childhood book character helped them get through a difficult time, and this doesn't need to change as we become adults.

That book isn't on this list, because who wants to read about a cheating dude after a breakup? Regardless of how I feel about its source, that brutal sentiment will ring painfully true for anyone who's just had their heart broken: When you're in the midst of a separation, it feels like you will never, ever stop loving the other person. Luckily, I can personally attest to the truth of that "time heals all wounds" adage, but unluckily, I can also personally attest to the truth of that "patience is a virtue" adage. And honestly, who feels virtuous after a breakup? So while you wait for patience and time to work their magic, I suggest you take matters into your own hands and nudge the healing forward by reading some books about breakups and heartbreak.

R29 Original Series

C'mon, Tennyson, is it really better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Getting dumped or being the dumper is about the most universal experience one can have, but we all deal in different ways : some of us wallow, some of us rebound, some of us move mountains, some of us don't move at all.

They'll love you more than an ex ever could. The last two emotions had been missing from my life for a long time at that point, and it was so good to feel them again. It taught me that people change, and the fact that at one time you cared for someone doesn't mean you should drag out what, at present, amounts to a terrible relationship. I got a box, and each time I remembered a cause, I wrote it down and put in the box. When I felt bad or sad, I'd just read those things I wrote, and it made me feel better. It is not a classic book, but it did make me realize the small things that had occurred, and it made my breakup easier to deal with.